A physical LEGO CON event is coming to Sydney, Australia!

Yesterday, LEGO Australia announced a special event, that they will be bringing an IRL (in real life) physical LEGO CON event to Sydney, Australia, which will run on 9-10 July 2022 at the Sydney Showgrounds.

Tickets are free, and can be registered online through Eventbrite, although the first lot has sold out. The next ticket release will be on Friday, 1 July.

this is a physical spin on LEGO CON 2022 (check out my recap and all new sets revealed at LEGO CON 2022), and it sounds like a lot of fun.

The event will be headlined by LEGO Masters Australia judge Ryan The Brickman McNaught, and winners of LEGO Masters Australia 2022, Joss & Henry will also at the show.

Unfortunately, the new sets revealed at LEGO CON, 10305 Lion Knight’s Castle and 10497 Galaxy Explorer will not be on display in Sydney, which is kind of a bummer.

Here’s a rundown of what to expect.

• LEGO Friends have been helping kids build and act out friendship stories for the last 10 years. This year at LEGO CON, fans will be able to celebrate love, friendship and the value of difference by building different hearts that will come together as one epic giant heart.

• If you missed the Melbourne Grand Prix, this is an opportunity to see the life-sized LEGO F1 McLaren Car for the very last time in Australia before it begins its journey to its next international Formula 1 event. Made with 288,315 LEGO bricks and taking 1,893 hours to build, this McLaren Formula 1 race car LEGO replica, has been designed to allow people to sit in it thanks to the removable halo and steering wheel!
• LEGO City fans can take part in the ultimate LEGO City build challenges. Attendees will be encouraged to build their favourite vehicle, to speed down the racetrack for their chance to win some cool prizes.

• LEGO Masters Fans will get to hear from their top some of the show’s favourite contestants in a special Q&A session along with the chance to put their building skills to the test against some Masters favourites.
• Over the two days, children can help Build the Change and create their version of a more sustainable future using LEGO bricks. The challenging building event for children will help increase their awareness of issues such as climate change, resources and education. These builds will then be on display for the rest of the LEGO CON attendees to admire!

• To celebrate LEGO’s 90 Years of Play Anniversary, LEGO CON will reveal a special nostalgic area, showcasing some key historical LEGO items, including traditional DUPLO and Technic sets!
• Between 11am and 1pm, children can enjoy a sensory-friendly session that allows families to participate in LEGO play within a safe and accepting environment. The LEGO CON big screen experience will be modified with dimmed lights are volume lowered for sensitive ears.

This seems like a test and learn for a physical LEGO CON event, and depending on how well it goes, it could be surmised that LEGO CON 2023 could be a physical event at Billund, or in some other LEGO HUB – LEGO CON was conceived as a live-streaming event purely because of the pandemic, but I think LEGO has big plans for it, and might transform and expand it further into a proper convention.

The timing is really unfortunate – as it directly clashes with 2 major LEGO fan conventions – Adelaide’s Brixpo and Newcastle Brickfest.

LEGO Fan Events are still recovering from the Covid Pandemic, and to have such a big show announced over these existing fan events will no doubt be a tough sell on fans, who might be torn to attend these.

Extra painful is that Joss & Henry are from the Central Coast, so as they’re headlining LEGO CON Sydney, it’s a huge loss to not be available for their very own local LEGO convention.

Unfortunately, the timing is quite hard to work around, as this date is the middle of the school holidays in New South Wales, so clashing with another family-focused event would’ve been almost unavoidable – from observing conversations online, the local LUGs and AFOLs are understandably upset that they were not consulted about this.

Also, this looks to be completely organised by LEGO Australia, who understandably want to have full creative-control over LEGO CON Sydney, but it would’ve been great if they had took the effort to collaborate and work with some of the local Australian/NSW-based LUGs on this, to integrate the fans and community to the event.

Also, it’s a shame that it doesn’t seem like any LEGO Designers will be in attendance. Australian LEGO events have been so saturated by LEGO Masters Contestants at local events, and it would’ve been nice if they could’ve flown someone down from Billund, to run a few sessions, or to do a meet-and-greet with the fans.

If you’re in Sydney, will you try to attend LEGO CON Sydney?

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